Rear Wheel Alaignment

I have pulled my rear wheel and had the tire replaced. I am now left facing one of my biggest fears with DIY maintenance: properly aligning the rear wheel. I have the service manual and have adjusted the chain. I have symmetrical marks on both swing arms. My issue is that there is quite a bit of play forwards and backwards on the right side. All that is left is to torque down the axle nuts but there is a lot of variation in what the final alignment might be. Adjustment nuts are locked down with lock nuts. Any ideas or request for info I neglected to include will be appreciated.
Regards,
Mark

Do you have a chain alignment tool? Very handy.

For final alignment see the last few posts of this thread: http://nc700-forum.com/forum/how-tos/433-drive-chain-maintenance.html

Also before you tighten the axle nut down take an old screwdriver and insert the handle between the chain and rear sprocket (one the bottom side) and put forward (like the bike is pushing it when ridden) pressure on the rear tire. This will make sure the axle is tight against the adjusters and there is no slack

Check out this link. This should help you out. How To Adjust Your Motorcycle Chain - YouTube

Unless you are drag racing or an engineer for NASA, I'd not be too concerned if you are not 100% spot on.
A final spin visual check is all I need.
some others here will disagree but then they are engineers...

Thanks for all the inputs. I ordered the alignment tool but will ride it until it arrives as I feel comfortable with the current alignment. The screwdriver trick solved the main purpose of this thread for me so thanks a ton. I get nervous about working on my own bike as I only have two wheels...and then I think, at least it's not an airplane!

My dealer says that they always go by the marks on the swing arm, and that they are right for adjusting chain. I have a motion pro chain adjuster and the chain is not aligned according to it. Also has more vibration. Will realign with Motion Pro chain adjuster when I get the time. Who do you believe, the Dealer or Motion Pro?

tew47 said:

My dealer says that they always go by the marks on the swing arm, and that they are right for adjusting chain. I have a motion pro chain adjuster and the chain is not aligned according to it. Also has more vibration. Will realign with Motion Pro chain adjuster when I get the time. Who do you believe, the Dealer or Motion Pro?

Click to expand...

Motion Pro. The adjuster marks are bad process. Even if they were dead-on, the amount of radial error that you can get from a short distance error at the marks is incredible. You can't see and interpret the marks accurately enough to do what needs to be done. With the pointer arm on the MotionPro tool you have enough distance at the tip to see if it is off. The difference matters. This bike, it seems, is particularly sensitive to accurate chain alignment and is noisy if it is not done. You can do it a little better for 4x the money with a laser tool. The amount of improvement between swingarm marks and the MotionPro pointer tool is worthwhile. I am not sure the difference between the laser and the pointer is worth much. I have never owned a store-bought laser alignment tool, but I made one out of a bore-sighting laser once. It worked well, but seemed unnecessary.

ETA: If you don't have an alignment gauge, but you do have a set of calipers, you can measure from the axle to the finished end of the swingarm where the adjuster plate rests on each side and match the distances. You can read the caliper to 0.001" whereas you would be doing good to interpret hash marks to 0.030". I did my NC with a digital caliper once when I could not locate the tool and got a good result.

I have no marks in the right side of the swing arm, so I used the second method explained by Beemer, until I got the MotionPro tool, which is easy and quick. You only need to be sure you seat it properly to the rear sprocket.

Tip: once you have verified the alignment above the rear sprocket, move back the arm of the MotionPro tool and turn the wheel clock wise just half a turn. Then you can check the alignment below the rear sprocket. Just a quick double check.